CHICAGO — In a move intended to force public testimony from President-elect Barack Obama’s inner circle, a lawyer for Gov. Rod Blagojevich has asked the legislative panel considering impeachment of the governor to subpoena more than a dozen witnesses, including Obama’s incoming chief of staff.

State Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie told The Associated Press on Thursday that the House committee received a letter from Blagojevich attorney Ed Genson asking it to subpoena Rep. Rahm Emanuel, Valerie Jarrett and more than a dozen others, including Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

Currie, the head of the impeachment committee, said she didn’t yet know what the committee’s response to Genson’s request would be.

However, she noted that the U.S. Attorney’s office has already denied the panel’s request to interview a list of people named in the criminal complaint against Blagojevich.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said earlier this week that lawmakers’ interviews of current or former members of Blagojevich’s staff might jeopardize his criminal investigation. Currie said the House panel’s next meeting is Monday.

U.S. Attorney’s office spokesman Randall Samborn declined to comment Thursday. Messages left Thursday for Genson, Jackson and attorneys for Jarrett and Emanuel were not immediately returned Thursday. The Obama transition team declined to comment.

Blagojevich was arrested Dec. 9 on charges alleging he tried to sell Obama’s vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder. He has denied any wrongdoing and is ignoring scores of calls to step down, including one from Obama.

None of the possible candidates for Obama’s Senate seat — said to include Jarrett and Jackson — is identified by name in the complaint, but Jackson has said he is the individual dubbed “Senate Candidate 5.” The congressman has said federal prosecutors told him he is not a target of their investigation.

Emanuel was the only Obama transition team member who discussed the Senate appointment with Blagojevich, and those conversations were “totally appropriate and acceptable,” according to incoming White House attorney Greg Craig.

The owners of Boulder’s Sterling University Peaks apartments, who this summer were cited for illegally subdividing 92 bedrooms in the complex, have reached an agreement to settle the case for $410,000, the city announced Thursday.